I had the opportunity to review a new bumGenius Freetime All-in-One and I even get to share one with you!My first impressions were good -- the Albert print I chose is ADORABLE. My husband and I are a little on the geeky side, and even he commented on how cute it is.

I was impressed by how trim the diaper is, even for an all-in-one. The way the inserts are attached and layered makes them spread out for coverage and gets tons of agitation and air flow in the washer and dryer. Some of my other all-in-ones take forever to dry, but this was done with my regular inserts! I definitely feel like there's enough absorbency with the multiple layers of microfiber too, even with my heavy wetter.

The fit was great on my two year old -- the bumGenius stretchy side tabs and trim diaper combined to give a great snug fit. On a smaller baby, the layers can be folded to put them right where they're needed. (I apologize for the lack of pictures, my kids have been sick and the shots I got of him in the diaper were pretty sad-looking!) Overall I really like this new design -- and you have the opportunity to win one, too! (Choice of color and closure depending on availability.)

You can do each one of the entries however you must post back here to our blog and tell us WHAT you did. Be sure you follow the Nicki’s Diapers blog - publicly for your chance to win! We will post our winner onFriday, December 30th!

How do you enter to win? (Each worth 1 entry per day unless otherwise stated)

Suggest the following facebook pages to your friends: Nicki’s Diapers , Best Bottom Diapers , Planet Wise. You must post back here telling us which friend accepted your page suggestion. (1 entry per page for each person you suggest that LIKES us)

Grab our button and place them on your blog. Post a link to the blog here. (2 entries per blog - per button)

When I first started cloth diapering 4 years ago, I was far too intimidated to use prefolds. I mean a diaper that has the word "fold" in it has to be complicated, right? Wrong! When my oldest son hit about 6 months, I felt like I was in the cloth diapering groove and decided to take on the challenge. I purchased a dozen prefolds and a handful of covers. Two kids later and I'm still hooked! I've found that the only thing easier than using prefolds on a baby is using prefolds on a newborn! Here is why:

Newborns go through a LOT of diapers. You'd think since I'm on my 3rd child, I'd remember just how many. I'm still floored as to how often I'm standing at the changing table every day changing a diaper that I feel like I just put on him! Prefolds are incredibly inexpensive, so with all those diaper changes, you're getting a lot more bang for your buck!

Prefolds are easy to clean! In my experience, prefolds and flats are two diapers that you will rarely have stink issues with. The natural fibers don't hold onto odor like some synthetic fibers do, they sun out stains very easily, and my favorite part.. no folding or stuffing when they're dry! Just stack them up!

Putting a prefold on a newborn is easy peasy. No newborn I've ever met can pull out the alligator roll and try to jump off the changing table like many toddlers do. So if you're still getting the hang of your favorite fold and getting that Snappi on, don't worry! Your newborn isn't going anywhere!

We all have things we look for in a cloth diaper, but when it comes down to it the most important thing is that it contains the poop and pee, and a prefold does this wonderfully! Newborn poop can be runny and explosive, so I love to use a Snappi to contain the mess in the prefold itself. If you prefer to trifold, a snug fitting cover will contain the mess, too. No more poop up the back, out the leg, or anywhere else it manages to get :)

And now onto the part that initially intimidated me... the folding! Google "prefold folds" and you'll find a never ending list of videos and how-tos on a dozen different folds. If you can, try a bunch out and see which suits you and your baby best! I have two folds that I find to be the easiest and I use on a regular basis:

Trifold: This is exactly what it sounds like... folding your prefold into thirds! Quick and easy! Then lay your prefold into your cover of choice and wrap onto your baby! This adds a ton of absorbency front to back and even your husband, grandparent or babysitter can do it! There are two small cons to this technique. It can be somewhat bulky to have so many layers, especially in the back of the diaper. Also, the newborn poop can sometimes get on the INSIDE of your diaper cover, meaning you may have to have more covers on hand.

Angel Wing Fold: This is the fold I use with prefolds 95% of the time. It's quick, easy, absorbent and very trim in the back. While I use this fold on my 2 1/2 year old, it's my favorite on a newborn because it contains all the poop in the prefold and I'm able to get many uses out of my covers. Below are step-by-step pictures on how to do an angel wing fold on your baby.

I've found my absolute favorite prefolds are the Imagine Smart Fit! They are cut more square to reduce bulk. Emmett was 7 pounds 12 ounces when he was born. We started with the Imagine Smart Fit Extra Small and they fit beautifully! They were hands down, our trimmest option. My kids like to give me a challenge, though. All 3 of them have been heavy wetters! The Imagine Smart Fit Small were considerably bulkier on him right away, but gave lots of absorbency. Here he is just when we came home from the hospital at a little over 7 pounds, first in an XS size (orange stitching), then a Small size (green stitching):

Now he is just over 10 pounds at 4 weeks old. We're still using both the Imagine Smart Fit XS and Small. I've found the XS size trifolded makes a great doubler in our small pocket diapers, too! I've also been adding one trifolded into the diaper cover when using the XS with the angel wing fold for some extra absorbency. Again, the XS on the left, Small on the right (both with a Best Bottom Diaper Cover).

Hopefully this may help some of you who were nervous about using prefolds and covers! They really are not difficult at all and there is something so simple and natural about a basic cotton prefold on a baby. Here is a quick price breakdown of what using prefolds for the first 3 months may cost:

In rough estimate, you'd spend about $270 using your typical disposable diaper in the first 3 months of diapering. You can see how much using prefolds and covers will save you, and don't forget that cloth diapers have an amazing resale value (or you can use them on your next children), saving you even MORE money!

Anyone who has ever had a new baby knows just how much laundry they produce. It still amazes me after 3 children, just how many tiny pieces of clothing a tiny little person dirties! You might be overwhelmed at the thought of adding in cloth diaper laundry. Here is the good news: Washing newborn diapers is EASY! And when I say easy, I mean that I'd rather wash the 12-15 diapers/day that my 3 week old is putting out than the 2-3 diapers/day that my almost potty trained 2 1/2 year old is putting out!Here is what makes it so easy:

The poop! If baby is exclusively breastfed, there is no need to do any spraying, scraping or dunking to get rid of the poop. While the bright yellow poop (or the hot mustard explosion as my husband calls it) may look, well.. disgusting, think of it as the consistency of yogurt. It's water soluble and will rinse away when you do your first rinse or cold wash in your wash routine.

The smell! Better yet, the lack of smell! I'm not getting all high and mighty by telling you my kid's poop doesn't stink. I'm telling you that newborn poop doesn't stink! Breastfed poop is generally void of a foul odor, which means you are less likely to have to deal with stinky diapers!

I have 2 places I store dirty diapers. I have a dry pail with a Planet Wise Pail Liner in Emmett's nursery and a Planet Wise Hanging Wet/Dry Bag in our bathroom. My 2 1/2 year old's diapers get thrown into the bag in the bathroom (convenient after spraying off a #2) and my newborn's diapers are in the pail (poop and all!). On wash day, I empty both of these into my washer and throw in the liner and bag. I do a cold rapid wash followed by a hot wash with detergent and an extra rinse. All covers and pocket shells go on a folding drying rack and inserts, prefolds and fitteds get tumble dried.

Special Considerations

Stains- It's true that the bright yellow poop does seem to stain cloth diapers. The good new is that even with a stain, they are clean. The other good new is that breastmilk poop stains fade over washing and sun out easily!

Meconium- I've had quite a few people ask me about meconium poop and how it washes out. This was honestly one of my biggest concerns before embarking on this journey! Emmett passed most of his meconium while we were still in the hospital. I didn't use any liners with the cloth diapers during that time. All of those diapers were stored for 2 days in our wetbag before being washed and all came perfectly clean!

Detergent Sensitivities- I don't have to tell you just have sensitive a newborn's skin may be! If you find that your little one is getting a rash or reaction only where their diaper touches, they may be sensitive to the detergent you are using. Make sure you are using something free of additives and free of fabric softener. Although specially advertised to be for babies, Dreft detergent is not a good option for cloth diapers. Also make sure you are rinsing your diapers well after the wash to ensure all detergent it out!

You can do each one of the entries however you must post back here to our blog and tell us WHAT you did. Be sure you follow the Nicki’s Diapers blog - publicly for your chance to win! We will post our winner onMonday, December 19th!

How do you enter to win? (Each worth 1 entry per day unless otherwise stated)

Suggest the following facebook pages to your friends: Nicki’s Diapers , Best Bottom Diapers , Planet Wise. You must post back here telling us which friend accepted your page suggestion. (1 entry per page for each person you suggest that LIKES us)

Grab our button and place them on your blog. Post a link to the blog here. (2 entries per blog - per button)

It's hard to believe it's been more than 2 weeks since my little guy came flying into the world! At just over 38 weeks, he surprised us by coming earlier than we expected. He also surprised us by being the smallest of our children, weighing in at 7 pounds 12 ounces! He was 2 pounds lighter than my first born and 1/2 pound lighter than our second born! I'm proud to officially present to you, Emmett McIntyre, born at 1:48pm on November 22nd! Here is he in his first cloth diaper ever at not quite an hour old.

We had an incredibly positive experience using cloth diapers at the hospital that we delivered at. In fact, before we were even admitted to the hospital, we were getting great feedback! While in triage, one of the nurses asked me if I worked at Nicki's Diapers. She was a blog and facebook follower :) This brought up the topic of cloth diapers with another nurse and she was very interested to hear about modern cloth diapers and wished she had tried them on her children. While in labor, we told our nurse that we wanted to use cloth, gave her the first diaper for him and showed her how to put it on. As you can see from the above picture, after nearly an hour of loving on our new baby, the first diaper on his bottom was a GroVia Newborn All-In-One.

After we were transferred to our family suite, I set up the "bassinett" drawers with everything we would need to use cloth diapers for the next 2 days. I hung our Planet Wise Large Wet Bag from the handle for easy storage of dirty diapers. All-In-Ones, pockets and fitteds went into one storage slot. Prefolds, Snappis and covers went into another storage slot. Liners, CJ's BUTT-er and my Planet Wise Small Wet Bag filled with Imagine Flannel Wipes went into another slot along with the provided disposable diapers. The picture below is actually taken just before discharge so many of the diapers have already been used.

I think the most important thing to do when trying to have a good experience with cloth diapering at the hospital is to have good communication with anyone providing care for you or your baby. Everytime a new nurse came on shift, we let her know that we preferred the cloth diapers and showed her how they worked (this was the main reason we brought some "easy" diapers like the pockets and all-in-ones). We also let her know that we were ok with a disposable diaper being used on the baby. While it was mainly my husband and I who changed Emmett's diapers, there were a couple times he was brought to the nursery for exams/tests and he returned in a disposable diaper. I'm happy to report they put the dirty cloth diaper in the correct place, though :)

We came home with a nearly full wetbag, and just emptied them into the washer along with the diapers left from my middle son's pail. One load of laundry is a drop in the bucket to the laundry that newborns produce, and in all honestly cloth diaper laundry is my favorite because no folding is necessary :) I highly suggest anyone who is interested in trying cloth from birth bring their diapers to the hospital. I'm so glad we did!

When the EcoPosh One Size Fitted Diaper arrived, I gushed about how incredibly SOFT they were. I couldn't wait to try one out on my boy, and now I can share my thoughts on them with you!
The first thing I noticed about these diapers is that they have some great features that I haven't seen in other fitted diapers. They're made of a unique combination of bamboo, organic cotton, and recycled water bottles which makes them some of the softest diapers I've touched and also amazingly absorbent. The sizing fits a wide range of babies -- 6lbs-35lbs or so. My youngest is about 27lbs now, and it fit him well!
It is a stuffable pocket fitted diaper, meaning that you can adjust the absorbency. The EcoPosh One Size Fitted Diaper is made by the same company that makes Rumparooz One Size Pocket Diapers, and features a bamboo version of their great 6r soaker. I found the bamboo 6r soaker to be incredibly absorbent and trim -- the contoured design made it a better fit between my guy's legs, and I liked the option of changing the position of the soaker to put the absorbency where it's needed most. The other unique feature of these diapers is the patent-pending double inner gussets. I found that they really helped to contain even really messy messes (we had a nasty stomach bug come through our house...yuck!) better than any other fitted I've tried!
I paired it for nighttime with a wool Aristocrats soaker and the results were bulletproof. No leaks! I am really very impressed with these diapers, and can safely say they are the nicest fitted diapers I've used on my kids. I love them for overnights, and if you wash every other day you really only need two to have a great nighttime diaper solution!